Prepare for Paranoia

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It’s the time of year for tracking down students, snagging schedules, and switching Instagram usernames. If you’ve been a part of GOFA (Give One For All) before, you know what I’m talking about. If not – let me fill you in.

Every year as a part of GOFA, Mayo organizes a school-wide game available to every student; it’s called Paranoia. The idea behind the game stems from today’s culture of the world and the understanding of what true paranoia could feel like; it’s also takes hide-and-seek to another level. The game is organized fully by Mr. Terpestra and starts on December 11th. However, slips are due by the previous Wednesday on the 6th of December with a payment of five dollars in your history classroom in order to qualify to play Paranoia.

The game of Paranoia is fairly simple. When one has entered the game, they receive a slip of white paper. On this paper includes a student’s first and last name and the grade, with nothing else. The goal of the game is to find your “target” and tag them before you are tagged by the player who has your name. If you are tagged, you are disqualified and forced to stop playing the game. If you tag someone else, that person gives you their slip of paper with a new name and grade, who is your next “victim.” The goal of Paranoia is to be one of the final people standing with as many names collected as possible, and each year there are several prizes awarded to these people.

Several strategies are used throughout Paranoia every year as well. Offensively, you can buy your “target schedule from the main office, and pay teachers to leave class a couple minutes early to wait outside your “target’s” classroom for them. Defensively, it is fun to switch up usernames and different accounts on social media to protect your identity from other students, and pay teachers to leave class early to quickly get to your next class to avoid getting tagged. All of the money is of course going towards the GOFA fundraising too.

Some of the rules of Paranoia include…

You must give up your slip when tagged out

There is a zero tolerance policy on any violence

You are only allowed to tag people in hallways

No tagging in classrooms and outside of the school

Have fun!

Overall, Paranoia takes the culture of today’s world and current issues and helps students at Mayo High School become aware in a fun and inclusive way. Paranoia is an extremely fun way to raise money for GOFA and help achieve our school’s goal for 2018- and I highly encourage everyone here to turn in your slip by December 6th and join the fun of what Paranoia is!